Hey everyone. This year’s thanksgiving blog is going to be a
little different. This year, the blog doubles as an assignment for Dr. H’s
class. We do an “a day in the life” about our experience with crazy black Friday
shopping for extra credit. So instead of talking about this Thanksgiving break
in chronological order, I’m going to first talk about black Friday and then
about everything else.
First some quick context. It’s Thanksgiving. I get 4 days
off for the holiday. This year my brother brought home one of his college
friends, an Indian grad student studying at his college. He’s from India and
this is his first time in the US. He wants to experience American Thanksgiving
and all that comes with it. I was looking forward to showing him the craziness
that is Black Friday. He is referred to as “J-man.”
While getting dressed for Thanksgiving, I notice the 2 extra safety vests I have in my closet. I tell everyone that is going shopping with us "ya know, I have 3 vests and 2 hoddies. We could all match this year." Joking definitely, don't want a repeat of
2012.
Black Friday was really different this year. Unlike
2010,
2011, and
2012, all the stores
opened up way early this year. They all opened up at like 6 PM and 7 PM
Thanksgiving DAY! This made everything quite boring. As we do every year, my
Dad went out and bought the Thanksgiving Day paper so we could get all the
circulars. I know that I can do that all online, and I did a little bit before
coming home, but it just isn’t the same. There’s something about actually flipping
through those glossy pieces of paper scanning every ad for something that we
might want. Have a look at the kayos.
Since my TV at college died, and I’ve been using an analog
TV tuner connected to a 12 inch monitor to get my live TV, the one thing I was
really looking for was a TV. All I needed was one that was at least 24 inches,
had HDMI for my blu-ray player, and was under $100. That’s actually the same
blu-ray player I picked-up
last year.
We knew we could get a TV with those specifications. Black
Friday always has deals on TVs. That’s how we got my grandpa’s TV. We found a couple in the circulars.
Best Buy had the one that was perfect; Insignia 24 inch, $79, perfect. It was a
7 PM door buster. We were still doing our Thanksgiving thing at 7 PM. However, since
this was the only thing we were actively trying to get, I was given permission
to leave early, try to get the TV, and then come right back. I told Mom, the “ringleader”
of both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, that “since I’ll already be in the
store, I’ll try to get the one other think I wanted from Best Buy,” and being a
reasonable request for this, the craziest shopping day of the year, I was given
permission to also try to get the other thing. What was this other thing? The
Big Bang Theory Season 6.
Now I begin my trip to Best Buy. On my drive over, I start
thinking over my game plan. “OK, if it’s anything like
previous years, it will
be really crowded with a line extending halfway around the parking lot of the
next door bowling alley. Since they’ve been open for 30 minutes, that line will
likely be down to a quarter of the lot. Since I’m just 1 person, I won’t need
to worry about getting separated from the group when let in and I might get
some priority. The lot is going to be packed. The most likely open place will
be on the far end of the lot. Now the TVs are in the back. They’ve changed the
layout since last summer so I might have to get creative with getting to the
back. Everyone wants big TVs. There will be a TV left for me. Insignia 24 inch.”
At this point I make it to Best Buy. I check the back, no
spots. I drive to the front, no spots. While at the front, I notice the line is
quite short, like not even beyond the end of Best Buy. I circle back to the
end, and I see people getting into a van. Bingo. I stalk the spot like a lion
stalking an antelope. I back just far enough to give them space to pull out. I’m
sitting in an “intersection” of the parking lot, and at this point, a big
pick-up truck pulls up in one of the lanes. I could tell it was eyeing my spot.
I’m driving a little vibe. This pick-up had to be twice my size. But this was
my spot, and I wasn’t about to let it go. It pulls up a little, but I pull up
even more. It pulls up a little again, and I completely block the intersection.
I’m the alpha car. I get the spot.
My precious spot was at the spot furthest from the line. I
get out of the car, lock the car, and jog over to the line, paying attention to
the vehicles around me. I’m wearing my thick safety yellow hoodie with the
reflective stripes so I know I’m visible. I weave between moving cars to get to
the line. Here’s a video of me in line.
I get in quite quickly. I was expecting to wait in line
for over 10 minutes, but I’m in the store within 5 minutes. I see the wall of
display TVs, on the other side of the store, with all these obstacles in my
way. I see an opening, strait to the cell phones. I briskly walk to the cell
phone section. When I get to the cell phones, dead end. Well, it would be a
dead end on a normal day, but today was not a normal day. There was a gap in
the corner of the walls of merchandise just large enough for someone of my size
to sneak through. Using my amazing powers of agility to step over a storage bin
of stuff, I get through and make my way to the TVs. No products were harmed in
the use of my secret passage.
I get to the TVs, and I see stacks of TVs, all different
brands and sizes. I look for mine making a sweep of the area, but I don’t see
the Insignia 24 inch for $79. Now as a man, I would normally not ask for help
finding my stuff and just circle the area until I find what I want, but time
was of the essence. I asked an employee where the Insignia 24 inch TVs were. I
was standing right next to them, and there was a relatively large sign that
said $79. I didn’t have time to feel embarrassed. I grab my TV, walk to the
checkout, grab Big Bang Theory Season 6 on my way, and get in line. I’m
expecting a 20 minute wait, but it was quite fast again, like 5-10 minutes. I
pay for my stuff, and walk out to my car. Here’s a video I shot in the car.
I head back home with my score. All the guests are still
there. They are impressed with the score. J-man was the most impressed. “My
cell phone was $79, and it’s 21 inches shorter.” Yeah but your cell phone can
do a lot more.
At about 9 PM, our guests leave. Only the guests that will
go Black Friday with us stay. Normally the BF team is my mom, her friend, my
brother, and me. Later in the night, one of my old high school friends will
typically join us.
Check out previous blogs for more information. This year
however, things were different. This year, mom’s friend’s son, Z-man, and my
brother’s friend J-man came along. J-man wanted to experience the American
cultural phenomenon that is Black Friday and Z-man just wanted to see what it
was like since he was now legally old enough to be out so late unsupervised. We
split into 2 groups, mom and her friend, and the under 30 group. I took over as
“ring leader” for the under 30 group. We wanted to go to K-Mart, Target, Best
Buy, and then check Walmart for the scraps. Those 3 stores (K-Mart, Target, and Best Buy) happened to be
within a 1/4 mile radius of each other. Sure, there’s a K-Mart and Target
closer to our house, but those are much further away from each other.
First stop, K-Mart. Here, I wanted Donkey Kong Country
Returns 3D and Animal Crossing New Leaf, both on 3DS. I’ve never been to this
location before, but I found the electronics easily. They blocked off the
electronics section and only let 5 or so people in at a time. They said it was
because that’s where they were holding the door buster tablets, and to get the
tablets you had to exchange a flyer you got from a wandering employee for the
tablet. Understandable. I had to request my games because of this. I was able
to get DKCR, but not Animal Crossing. Oh well. The rest of the group is doing
some more browsing, and we’re in the store for about 30 minutes. My brother and
J-man get headphones 50% off. It didn’t take very long to check out because
there wasn’t many people there. Next stop, Target.
This particular Target was in a strip mall, next to Dunham’s
Sporting Goods and across the street from Best Buy. At Target I wanted to get
The Internship and Simpsons Season 18. They had The Internship, I got 1 of the 2 copies
left, but they were out of Simpsons. Oh well. Z-man wanted to get Monster’s
University. Here’s a funny thing with Target; the Black Friday deal movies were
mixed in with the regular priced movies. While in line I saw that they had a
special rack of BF deal only DVD and Blu-Rays, but in the normal DVD and
Blu-Ray section of the store they also had the deals but they were mixed with
the normal movies. At the price check there was a pile of movies that weren’t
the correct edition. For example, the DVD version of The Internship was on
special, but the Blu-Ray version wasn’t. Also, the Monster’s University
DVD/Blu-Ray combo was on special, but not the stand alone DVD, the stand alone
Blu-Ray, the collectors edition DVD/Blu-Ray combo, nor the Ultimate 3D
Blu-Ray/normal Blu-Ray/DVD/digital copy combo. The line for the check-out was
quite long. It snaked in and out of many aisles, most of which were personal hygiene.
Here’s a video of the scene.
I told the team to bring me their stuff and I’ll wait in
line. Z-man gave me Monster’s University and the money to pay for it. While I
waited, everyone else went to Dunham’s. That was a good 45 minute wait. When
checking out, there was a group of women that wanted to buy a bottle of wine.
For some reason the computer said that they couldn’t legally sell alcohol at
that time. The clerk checked with the manager, and he checked with someone even
higher up, and they said “just ring it up as other.” Turns out that the group
of women were from Canada and they wanted something alcoholic to drink in the
hotel after the shopping was over. The rest of the team was done with Dunham’s
by the time I finished checking out. In true stupid, young adult, 4 guys having
fun late at night; my brother pulls up the car, doesn’t stop and instead
coasts, I jump in while the car is moving, and yell “GO! GO! GO!” as if this
was some sort of get away scene.
Before we head to Best Buy, we decide it would be a good
idea to stop at 7-Eleven first. This way, we would be able to get some Slurpee
sugar to keep the adrenalin up in addition to not having to make a left onto a
really busy street. To get to Best Buy, turn left without a light onto a super
busy street. To get to 7-Eleven, turn right onto the super busy street and then
make a left at the light. This was J-man’s first Slurpee. After we get our
frozen sugar, to Best Buy.
At this point it’s 10 PM. They have been open for 3 hours
now. There was no line to get in. We just walked right in. Just about all the
door busters are gone, including my TVs.
Luckily, I did all my needed shopping and I was just there
for the ride at this point. I did a little looking around, just seeing what
else was out there, but nothing really interested me. Since Black Friday is
their busiest day of the year, all the terminal stations for each section
become registers. I don’t know if they are retrofitted for today only or if
they have this capability year round. Either way, there are registers in the
middle of the store. My brother wanted to get a video camera, some accessories
for that camera, and a couple of CDs. Unfortunately there was a problem
checking out. Since we were at a center store register and no one was waiting
for us, I suggested that they ring up the camera separate from everything else.
That worked for the camera, but everything else, still problem. He “put back” the
spare battery and that solved everything. He didn’t put enough money into his
debit card account, so the problem was insufficient funds. I found out after
all the shopping that I overdrew my account, but because I used it as credit
instead of debit, I was able to overdraw because the transfer wasn’t instantaneous.
It’s 11 PM, all our main shopping was done. We head to
Walmart in the off chance that there was some craziness to see. On Black
Friday, Walmart has its doors open all night and they wrap the door busters in
what is essentially cellophane. Read more about it in a previous blog
here. This
year, since they did their door buster’s so early, all the door busters were
unwrapped and all the craziness was over. Only the “vultures” were left to see
what we could still get after the initial crazy people. I went to the movie and
game door buster scraps to see if anything caught my eye. I found Batman Arcam
City and The Ratchet and Clank HD collection, both for PS3. I bought them on a whim since
they’re both supposed to be great games. Then I see it, the one that got away,
Animal Crossing New Leaf. When compared to other stores, this was the cheapest
place to get it, and since it’s such a great game, I expected it to be gone. It
was gone at K-Mart, and it was $5 more at K-Mart. And there wasn’t just 1 copy
left. It was as if only half the games were gone. There had to be 2 shelves of
it. I couldn’t believe it. I got my copy, looked around a little more, found
the team, checked out, and left.
This year was definitely the most boring Black Friday. After
all the shopping, we got back at 11:52 PM. It wasn’t even Friday yet. Since
every store opened so early, all the crazy fun was done and over with by the
time our Thanksgiving party was over. I think we even ended Thanksgiving
earlier than we normally do, but that wasn’t enough to get there in time for
the crazy. By doing door busters so early, all REALLY crazy people are done
before the fairly crazy get there. Once the “normal” crazy are ready to head
out, all the REALLY crazy and fairly crazy are gone. Most of the fun is diving
over people once the cellophane comes off. Unless all 3 species of crazy are
there at the same time, there’s no diving, there’s no reaching, there’s no fun.
Normally my high school friend joins us at about 12:30-1:00 because his family’s
Thanksgiving festivities last until around 11 PM. He wasn’t able to join us
this year, and he’s the rest of the fun. I offered to do a second round of
shopping just with him since this is pretty much the only time I get to see him
in the short time I have with Thanksgiving break, but since it was just going
to be the 2 of us and he wasn’t really interested in anything this year, he
didn’t do Black Friday this year. I still had fun with the team this year, but
it just wasn’t the same. Hopefully next year, all the stores open at midnight
so the fun actually happens. Oh well.
Now for the rest of my short break.
Like every break, I came home on the train. Normally the
train is 5-10 minutes late because another train had to pass it or it took
longer than expected to load and unload passengers at the stops before mine.
This time, the train was delayed 1 and a half hours. Apparently there was an
obstruction on the track and it took them a while to move it. My train that was
supposed to leave at 4 left at 5:30. I went through half a stack of newspaper
comics waiting on the delay. Because the train got so behind schedule, it threw
off the rest of the train routs. We had to let 2 different trains pass us, and
that set us back another hour. I was scheduled to get to my destination at 7:30
PM, but instead got back at 10 PM. My grandparents were going to pick me up,
everyone would get to see me and be happy I made it back, meet my brother’s
friend, and it would be a little welcome home celebration. But since 10 PM is
late for my grandparents and my brother wanted to see his best friend from high
school, only my parents got to welcome me home. I’d get to see everyone
tomorrow so no big deal.
Begin Thanksgiving Day. Mom, my brother, and J-man went to
the parade. I got to wake up in my own house, eat a chocolate muffin, and enjoy
being home. I watched some TV channels I don’t get up at school, played some
video games, and use my electric blanket. I helped some with the getting set-up
for the Thanksgiving festivities, mostly moving chairs and making sure there
was enough room for people to visit. We expected people to show up at about 2
PM. My grandparents showed up at 2, and then their friends showed up at 2:15.
My grandparent’s friend plays the accordion, and she brings it whenever there’s
a family gathering. I jokingly told J-man “now this a normal part of
Thanksgiving. Everyone’s grandparent’s has a friend that knows how to play the
accordion and everyone gathers around and sings songs.” After the accordion, it
was time for dinner. We had the normal turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and
everything else. We also had ham and some kind of yogurt cucumber salad J-man
made. We all enjoyed each other’s company. After dinner I went Black Friday shopping.
You’ve already read about that.
The day following the shopping, Friday, I got my hair cut,
hung out with mskate and later mbinski, the high school friend who missed Black
Friday. Nothing super special there, just some fun with friends. I head back to
college on Saturday, and now here we are. Well this has been Pokematic signing
off and bu-bye.
